It all depends on your situation

We recently read, and paused over, a posting on brainpickings.org about how context changes who we are. The basic idea is that we are not static characters who always act in the same ways—it all depends on the situation we are in.

The notion comes from Sam Sommers, who wrote the book Situations Matter, released last month. And it dovetails with an underlying principle of Unstuck. We believe that people get stuck in different ways, depending on their situation. You might be a deflated doer in a work situation (“Why do I have to do these daily reports that no one reads?”) and a fuzzy forecaster at a family pow-wow (“I know what we should do…but exactly how isn’t quite clear”).

The idea seems simple enough, and yet, we all have a tendency to prescribe, dub, anoint, accept, even pigeonhole ourselves and others as one way or another, and leave it at that. It helps us cope with life and explain our world. Known is less scary than unknown (even if it isn’t exactly right). I’m a doer. She’s a complainer. He’s such a Virgo.

Watch the video above—a trailer for Sommers’ book—and see which side of the fence you land on. Or maybe you’re on both sides. 🙂